Pre-rinse, suds, scrub, rinse, clear coat, and wax. There’s
no better feeling to pull out of the car wash with your baby looking its finest.
Look out world! Only the best for the Maserati’s we all drive. Well okay, I guess I’ll
have my trusty bike and city bus for now. Everyone knows that guys love cars,
it’s a bro thing. My last mission companion, Elder Openshaw, came up with an
awesome analogy for baptism and confirmation after four weeks being out in the
mission field that anyone, especially car enthusiasts like myself can
appreciate and relate to.
I’ll try to paraphrase my brilliant mission companion’s
parable.
Baptism and Confirmation
is the works option at the car wash. Baptism
literally washes all of our mistakes away the same the pre-soak, suds,
undercarriage wash, and rinse removes all the dirt, bugs, and road film. Confirmation (receiving the gift of the
Holy Ghost or as many know him as the Holy Spirit), compares to waxing your
prized possession. No way would you want all of that effort in cleaning the car
go to waste!
Genius! When I heard this I knew that there was a way to
understand Baptism and Confirmation the way that our Heavenly Father intended
it.
Baptism: To try to add my own two cents into this
analogy, I decided to image my future Farrari. You wouldn’t want just any
Junior High soccer team car wash fundraiser laying hands on that beast of a
machine, now would you? Only the most qualified hands are going to wash that!
Same thing works with baptism. There are people who hold the authority (what’s
known as the priesthood), to wash you clean of all your mistakes. Only the finest
for your four wheeled baby and you!
Confirmation: Now time to seal the deal. Status
symbol and you are now completely clean. We now need to keep all that illustrious
paint that money can buy and your spirit protected from the elements. Heck no
to those little bugs and road film! Confirmation works the same way. Skilled
white gloved hands, lovingly apply wax
to keep the car’s showroom gleam. Heavenly Father provided the Holy Ghost (sometimes
referred to as the Holy Spirit), as a constant companion to help us know which
roads to take and which to detour.
So what are you waiting for? Throw the cover off your prized
coup and hit the streets. Elder Openshaw couldn’t have said it better. Baptism
and confirmation are as simple as getting the works done to your car.
